Does anyone know the source of this quote?

Miscellaneous General
1

Does anyone know the source of this quote? Would be useful for my history essay.### “A country can be defined as a group of people with a shared misunderstanding of their history and a common hatred of their neighbours”.

2

As Ernest Renan noted, history is not so much about collective memory, but first of all about forgetting. He defined the nation as: “… a group of people united by a common hatred of their neighbours and a shared misunderstanding of their past.”

As found here:

http://www.socialistsanddemocrats.eu/gpes/media3/documents/2856_EN_politics_past_en_090603.pdf

3

“A country can be defined as a group of people with a shared misunderstanding of their history and a common hatred of their neighbours.”

Haha. Amazing quote.

4

Are you sure it’s Renan? According to Wikipedia: “Karl Deutsch (in Nationalism and its alternatives) suggested that a nation is ‘a group of people united by a mistaken view about the past and a hatred of their neighbours.’ This phrase is frequently, but mistakenly, attributed to Renan himself.”

5

I’m just quoting that PDF. If Wikipedia says that’s a common mistake, then they obviously know more about it.

I wonder what alternative Deutsch offers in his “Nationalism and its alternatives”.

6

Oh, here is a review of it.

http://www.roadtopeace.org/whatcanwedo.php?itemid=101

Which includes the quote.